


One For the Road

by tjs_whatnot



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: A conversation I wanted to hear, Drunken Confessions, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 06:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12858753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjs_whatnot/pseuds/tjs_whatnot
Summary: Jessica was set for a night drinking alone. She didn't mind the company though...





	One For the Road

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chelseagirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseagirl/gifts).



> Chelseagirl, thank you for requesting these two and allowing the possibility of "just friends' (though I'm not ruling out more *wags eyebrows*) because I just really wanted a scene when they actually start to, you know, talk. I hope you enjoy this little treat.

“One for the road... one for the sidewalk... and one for the doorman who carries you to bed,” Jessica mumbled to herself as she took one, two, three shots that she’d lined up on the sticky bar in front of her. She had come there to be alone with her drink, no matter that she’d heard Matt and that other lawyer-type say that it was _their_ bar. She hadn’t come for company. Not them. Not anyone.

Still didn’t stop her from smiling when she looked over at the presence that took up the seat and air next to her.

“Is this where I say something about all the gin joints in all the world?”

Luke smiled. “Isn’t that from a movie or something?”

Jessica waved the barmaid over. “Or something. You need to get out more, buddy.”

“I do? I don’t think getting out now would help me with quotes from movies that were made in the 40s though.”

“Ah, maybe you can get your lady love to do that Netflix and Chill thing then.”

The barmaid deposited two more shots in front of them.

“Perhaps we’ll give that a try. Lord knows we could do with a bit of the chill part.”

They picked up their tiny glasses and looked at each for a moment as if they both wanted to say something, anything to make the drink go down smoother, but neither had the words. They just simultaneously shrugged and lifted the glasses to their lips. 

“Are you going to be okay?” Luke asked.

Jessica swayed and then cursed herself for showing signs like a fucking amatuer. “Me? Oh yeah, I’ll be aces...any day now.”

“Really, have you _ever_ been okay?”

“There were moments.” She swallowed. “You featured in some of them.”

He smiled slow. “Those were some nice moments, weren’t they?”

“Until I fucked it up. Story of my life.”

Luke sighed. “To be fair, it was fucked up before it started.”

“That supposed to make me feel better?” She waved the barmaid over again. Why was she always at the other end of the bar when she was needed?

They halted their conversation while more shots were poured, this time Jessica indicated that she’d prefer more than one, more than two. Luke looked concerned, but she was used to that look from the people in her life. She’d learned to ignore it years ago.

“Well, maybe this will make you feel better,” Luke began after they’d took the first shot. “Since last we’ve met--”

“When I shot you in the head.”

“After I tried repeatedly to kill you.”

“Because of Kilgrave. Because I killed your wife…”

“Yeah, after all of that… shit, we really are fucked up, aren’t we?”

Jessica didn’t answer, just raised a shot to her lips and threw it back. 

“There are just… just things that I’ve learned… things that have happened that have made me reevaluate that whole calling you a piece of shit thing.”

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t know. I mean, you told me, but I didn’t know what it meant to have someone else in your head, making you do things and having absolutely no control. I tried to kill you. I knew you, had… feelings for you and I did it anyway. You didn’t know Reva, so how could I hold you to standards I couldn’t met myself?”

Jessica couldn’t say anything.

“And, I didn’t know then… well… I found out a few things about my wife, the woman who I had thought saved me and made my life worth living that I didn’t know when I called you that.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow.

Luke took a deep breath and continued. “Not that she deserved to die, but there were things I didn’t know about her, things I wish I didn’t know. And well... I just thought you should know.”

Jessica wasn’t _exactly_ sure what Luke was saying, but it did make her feel better like he’d said it would.

“I guess what I’m saying is that you have got to let yourself off the hook for the things that happened while you were… were, you know, _not_ yourself. You’ve more than made up for all of it, even if it wasn’t really your debt to pay.”

Jessica’s vision blurred and he looked down so that Luke couldn’t see the reason why. _Fuckin’ amateur_. 

“Thank you,” she whispered because she didn’t know what else to say, didn’t have anything else to say.

After a moment of almost awkward silence, Luke held up his last shot. Jessica did likewise. “One more for the road?”

“And one more for the sidewalk…”

“And the doorman who will carry us to bed?”

She smiled and swiped at her eyes. “Something like that.”


End file.
